Growing up in central Ohio, we were one of the few “no car” families in our lower middle-class neighborhood. Mom never drove and Dad gave up driving in his 30s – mostly due to the expense. So anytime we needed to go anywhere, it was off to the bus stop. Thus began a life-long fascination with motor coaches.

Fortunately, our city was served by the Columbus Transit Company (CTC), a progressive transportation entity spun off from the Columbus and Southern Ohio Electric Company in 1949. In the mid ‘50s to mid ‘60s, CTC operated two different coaches; the ubiquitous GM Old Look, in various sizes and seating configurations, and the Marmon Herrington (MH) TC-44/48 Trolley Coach.

Paul did a great post on the GM Old Look Coach here. It’s hard today to understand just how common these coaches once were – in 1956, GM held 84% of the transit and highway coach market in the US – a fact that invited government scrutiny and the Dept of Justice filed an anti-trust suit in federal court that year. CTC operated three versions of the Old Look.

Smaller TGH (Gas) 3102s were used on the cross-town and low demand routes.

As Paul mentioned, these had a very distinct ride, as the two-cycle 6-71 diesel engines spinned up quickly – and the two-speed Allison V-Series automatic transmissions gave a very abrupt shift from low to high gear (essentially direct drive). We typically preferred riding in something a little less jerky………

Prior to 1946, Marmon Herrington was a manufacturer of trucks and automotive components; perhaps best known for their 4WD conversions of Ford station wagons and pick-up trucks. They identified a niche in the large post-war bus market – GM and the other smaller bus manufacturers were focusing on internal combustion engine buses, primarily diesel. Few were offering electric traction models. MH built a new factory in Indianapolis to hopefully exploit this niche……..

…….and one of their eager customers was CTC, who was looking to replace its older Brill and Pullman trolley buses, and purchased a series of MH coaches in 1947/48 – here some are being loaded on rail cars at the MH factory in Indiana for delivery to Columbus.

Again, an easily understandable naming convention – T (Trolley) C (Coach) 44 or 48 (seating). TC-48s can be distinguished from TC-44s by the extra window and row of seats in between the front and rear doors.

They served on all major routes.

By the late ‘50s – early ‘60s these MH’s were getting a little long in the tooth – note that was just the bodies and interiors – the drivetrains, as with all electric motors, had little wear. And if you could live with the slightly older, worn-down interior, you’d be rewarded with smooth, fluid electric traction as it pulled away from each stop – no lurching hydraulic auto transmission here.

The only time things didn’t go smoothly was when the poles came off the power lines (a dewirement). This didn’t happen often and was usually greeted as a nuisance by the driver, who had to glide the bus over to the curb, exit, walk to the rear, and guide the poles back on to the wires. These buses also rode “hard”, as they lacked the innovative air suspension of the GM models.

The MH’s continued to serve until 1965 when the last run was made on May 30, and the age of the trackless trolley came to an end in Columbus.

However, evidence of how well-built these coaches were, thirty-two were sold to Dayton in 1967. Twenty of these were refurbished (twelve used for parts) and continued to provide excellent service for another 15 years.

The bus in the two pictures above (515) has been preserved and is on display at the Carillon Historical Park in Dayton.

Both these GM and MH buses are true Curbside Classics………

59 Comments

Thank you, I’ve a bit of an interest in trolley buses and can remember being taken to New Cross (I think ) to see the last London trolley buses in the early 60s. Dad was a big fan of them. Trolley poles were under a lot of tension and are quite hard to pull down and reattach after a dewirement. Many of the Blackpool trams had poles til replaced with the pantograph.

We made a trip to London last Oct – our first – and one of our initial visits was to the London Transportation Museum – fantastic place – could spend several days there. Looking forward to going back – London is a wonderful city. Jim.

I remember as a young child being fascinated by the electric trolleys that would travel in front of my grandmother’s house in Dayton. You could occasionally see them spark at the the ends of the “antennas” as they crossed nodes in the overhead wires.

I visited Leningrad in 1988 and was surprised to see two separate trolley busses hitched up end to end. A single driver operated both… They were essentially bendy busses with four axles instead of three….or a trackless trolley train.

Thanks for this fascinating ride ! I was a frequent bus rider too in my younger years. Our public transport buses back then were built by domestic independent coachbuilders, riding on Leyland or DAF underpinnings.

The City of Arnhem (think 1944 Battle of Arnhem) still uses trolleys. The latest model is the Hess Swisstrolley. Built by Hess from Switzerland (well that sounds legitimate…)
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia/Alfenaar.

Yes, trackless were, in my opinion, a great innovation. We had them in Seattle as a mainstay in our transit system. Later, when I was a student and returned from a stint in the Navy, the same trolleys still plied the streets of Seattle, mostly in the hilly sections, and I drove them for five years. We did not have MH’s. The majority of our trolleys were Twin Coaches, Pullman’s and the last surviving Brill. Today, Seattle is among the five remaining U.S. cities still using trackless trolleys, including standard size and 60′ articulateds, all manufactured by New Flyer.

Marmon-Herringtons shared the electrified streets of San Francisco with smaller fleets of Fageol and St. Louis Car trolley buses. San Francisco Municipal Railway’s first order of M-H and all the Fageols were delivered with their sears upholstered in green leather…real leather, heavier and more durable than that in any Mercedes-Benz and just about as hard! Later orders came in green vinyl.

The ride of the M-H buses, as noted, was hard and jolting. The Fageols were soft, much more comfortable. Cushioned ride, seats of thick leather…the Fageols were the Broughams of the Muni!

These trolley buses from the various makers were generally not interchanged between routes until late in their lives when breakdowns took their toll. The Fageols ran on the 30-Stockton and 5-McAllister and smaller lines, the St. Louis (inevitably nicknamed “Louies”) on the 47-Potrero and 14-Mission. M-Hs ran the 41-Union/Howard and most of the rest.

The trolley buses were well suited to San Francisco’s legendary hills. In the mid-1960s when a major street rebuilding project severed the 41 line into Union and Howard segments, Muni substituted diesel buses. They were poor hill climbers. My brother and I would footrace the diesel buses uphill on foot on Union St. Between Polk and Larkin, and usually win, much to the amusement of passengers. Those diesel buses were Macks. When it came time to replace its hoary old White gasoline buses, Muni leased hundreds of Macks. Muni had not a single GM Old Look. There wasn’t a GM bus to be seen until Fishbowls, along with a token group of Flxibles, came in the late 1960s. Flxible then got the contract to replace the M-Hs, Fageols and Louies.

Today, San Francisco maintains electric traction. Its trolley bus operation has actually expanded to more route-miles than fifty years ago. Electric rail transit is represented by six light rail lines operating in the Market St. Subway and on the surface outside downtown. A historic fleet of streetcars from Philadelphia, Minneapolis (via New Jersey), Milan and San Francisco itself, wearing paint schemes of streetcar lines from many different cities, cruises along the waterfront and on the surface on Market Street. Electric rail, like electric trolley buses, operates more route-miles now than in the 1960s.

Muni’s trolley buses proudly wear the logo, “ZERO EMISSIONS VEHICLE.” San Francisco owns its water supply, and its own hydroelectric generating capability, more than sufficient for its needs. Vancouver, BC and BC Hydro can make the same claim. Perhaps Seattle, too? Maybe Larry, who drove there and posted above, can tell us. Philadelphia, New York, Washington DC, and New Jersey…and Amtrak…all of which operate electric, use power generated by burning fossil fuels.

Thanks Jim! I am a kid again. No electric transportation in my home town
of Kenosha, WI but Milwaukee was running trackless and trolley along with
the GM diesels. We used them often. I remember the postman getting on,
never had to pay, that was a real courtesy.

There was the North Shore Line, an electric railroad running between Milwaukee
and Chicago. Electricity is great.

In Columbus, shortly after the trollies disappeared, people complained about the diesel bus smell.
The solution lasted about a month- some sort of perfume was used in the diesel fuel. It ended up smelling like diesel roses.
The fix ended after about a month, when most of the busses were in the shop for fuel-related issues.

Prior to 1964, Pittsburgh (actually Allegheny County,PA) the mass transit system consisted of over 30 bus lines and the trolley system (I heard at one time had one of the largest fleets of PCC cars.). In ’64 the state allowed the Port Authority to assume the transit role. PAT settled on the GM “New Look” officially, but along with the routes they acquired from the old bus lines,they also acquired many GM “Old Looks”. They refurbished them in the 60s and 70s. The added on A/C units made them “butt heavy” and slow! Some were still around when PAT briefly flirted with GMs RTS, PAT then got a fleet of junk Neoplans. (if only they were as good as the ‘New Look” or “Old Look”) Some outlying counties still have some RTS.

Mrs. Tom and I rode a trackless trolley in your city 10 years ago. Don’t remember what it was, but it was much older than the articulated in your photo. Nice transit system in Vancouver.

My first year in high school (1964) the Phoenix transit system ran old gas Fageol Twin Coaches for students. One driver told me they brought out the Old Looks when it rained because the Twins would short out in water.

In many of the smaller cities where trolley systems existed, there were never really profitable in a “covering the cost of capital” sense. In other words, they made a small operating profit, but when the fixed plant needed refurbishment, it couldn’t be justified, especially at 20th century borrowing rates.

Instead, many were built by the local electric utility, but were later spun off from the electric company. The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, made it illegal for a single private business to both provide public transport and supply electricity to the public. Since the sale of electricity contributed much of the overall profits, it was difficult for the streetcars to make money alone.

Furthermore, it’s worth noting that these weren’t transit agencies – they were for-profit corporations that had to pay taxes, franchise fees, and maintain their right-of-ways. Fares were usually fixed by regulation, and the franchise fees often were based off of gross profit, not net profit.

Once the automobile caught on, these companies were all doomed as profit-making enterprises. Some survived to be taken over by transit agencies in larger cities that could afford them.

Streetcars once ran in cities as small as Shamokin, PA (population fewer than 30,000 from the 1890s to 1929, when the trolleys shut down). There is no public transportation in this dying coal town today (population 7,500).

The Pacific Electric Railway was a special case – owned by the Southern Pacific Railway and founded by Henry Huntington as a loss-leader. The railway was built to provide transportation to land owned by Huntington, which he then sold to developers. The PE didn’t have to make money as long as the land sales were providing profits. But once all the land was sold, and most of the residents had cars, the PE couldn’t turn a profit.

Unfortunately the PE didn’t survive long enough to be taken over by a transit agency.

Pictured is an ACF Brill coach with 140hp GE motor. Operated by the post-WWII Los Angeles Transit Lines, which eventually was sold into the public agency called the MTA. I remember these in green MTA livery until the electric portion of the system was abandoned in 1963.

Was that act revoked at some point? I remember quite well that when I was a child (1980’s) in Greensboro, NC, the buses were run by the local electric utility, Duke Power. That ended sometime in the late 80s as I recall.

I well remember riding the electric trolly buses in and around Boston in the early 1960’s warm and comfy in Winter , hot as Hades in Summer (! NO A/C !) , smooth and quiet , cheap @ .10 CENTS including a transfer back then .

Going by these pictures, it appears that passenger side rear view mirrors were not standard issue. Hardly seems safe for navigating or assuring the safety of your passengers after they get off the bus.

Our city kept electric trolley buses in service until the mid 1960s and I rode on them quite a bit. I remember the dewirement happening on more than a few occasions, especially when the trolley made a left turn too quickly. The diesel buses that replaced them were noisy and smelly but the streets looked better without the grid of overhead wires.

I have previously discussed our love of the GM buses from my student days in Iowa City, where the University had bought up old ones and used them to provide campus transportation. They road and accelerated exactly as Jim describes. The windows rattled as if they were going to fall out on every bump, and the transmission felt and sounded as if it was about to disintegrate on every shift. Hroom-Rattle-Rattle-Bam! Here I want to give thanks for those wonderful old pictures of Columbus. Just the other day a friend of mine and I were discussing how much we miss the old downtown Lazarus department store. Even a starving (OSU) graduate student could walk into that place and be waited on and outfitted as if he was worth a million.

Loving all the vintage pics of downtown Columbus! I moved here in the early ’80s, but my family made many trips here during the ’60s and early ’70s to visit my Grandma and an aunt. I was only about 4 years old in ’65, so I don’t remember the trolley buses. 🙁

The downtown Lazarus is sorely missed, but I’m pretty sure the store with the Mr. Peanut sign is still in business at the same location. (3rd picture from the top)

Lazarus was definitively the place – I haven’t found anyone who shopped there who doesn’t miss it. As a youngster, would ride the trolley from Clintonville to downtown and explore the 6th floor toy store area. Yes, the Mr Peanut store was at Broad and High and was a landmark. I haven’t been back to Columbus in several years so don’t know if it is still there or not – hope it is. Jim.

The Peanut Shop (with the same working Mr. Peanut sign!) is now at the SE corner of High and State Street on the ground floor of the Fifth-Third bank building. A larger and nicer store than the former N. High Street location and I think it is busier for them too…the idea was to be closer to Ohio Theater business. The downtown Lazarus is now refurbished (nicely I might add) as office space. The Chintz Room restaurant recently reopened but is accessible directly from High St – I have not tried it (it can’t be as good as the original, of course!). My favorite of the old in-store restaurants (weren’t there eleven of them?) was the Highlander Grill in I believe the West Basement. And what other store could have had an “UP TO BASEMENT” sign as on the Front. St. Level escalator? What a store!

Thanks for the info – glad the Peanut shop is still open and doing well. You’re right – all the restaurants were great – each with its own theme. And I hadn’t remembered the “Up to Basement” sign in 40 years – thanks for the memory! Jim,

Way before my time, but I’ve been curious about these buses for a while, in fact I never knew they existed until a few years ago when I was researching mass transit systems, in particular the electric streetcars. I in the midst of reading about the factors leading to the decline, I thought to myself in hindsight “they should have just used electric busses that use the overhead wires and just do away with the rail infrastructure – best of both worlds!” Really glad I wasn’t writing any kind of term paper or surrounded by real experts on the topic, my face was sure red when I saw a picture of a bus with poles on it soon after! 😛

Still seems like a good better means than diesel busses to me though, I utterly hated riding busses in my lifetime, every last one was a NVH peanalty box with a loud jerky diesel(can’t imagine the days of the old look from what I’ve heard described). My personal view on the subject is gas IC belongs in cars, Diesel belongs in industrial/agriculture, and Electric propulsion belongs in transit. Plus, maybe I’m in the minority, I love the look of cities with overhead wires, they just look so much more complete. I’ve been to parts of a few cities where some of the hardpoints of that old infrastructure remains(poles, abandoned right of ways, etc) and it just looks depressing, and functionally I feel direct power transmission > power storage(batteries) can’t take more than a few minutes to realign two poles to the wires in a dewirement scenario, run out of juice on the batteries and that bus aint going anywhere for a while.

Personally, I thought the overhead wires were ugly, and that is most likely the majority opinion. Also, the infrastructure to support that system required large motor-generator sets every few miles, as the systems were 600VDC, as I recall. Conversion efficiency could not have been very good and the power itself was generated from coal or bunker oil here, very little hydro and the nukes didnt exist yet.

Until storage battery tech takes another leap, natural gas powered buses are used in Los Angeles. Not being tied to a trolley wire infrastructure allows the most flexibility in routing.

There is the dual power option. Metro Transit had a lot of them for a while. They use articulated buses with a complete diesel power train in the rear and a complete electric power train in the middle. One of the areas that they were used heavily once it was open was in the bus tunnel in downtown Seattle. But before that there were routes that would run in city on electric and continue on to the Suburbs on diesel.

I don’t get the whole infatuation with streetcars either. I’ve seen plenty of “then and now” photos of major intersections in places like Pittsburgh or downtown Los Angeles where there were so many sets of overhead wires crossing the street that they looked like cages.

See, I love that look, in a dense city it adds to the built up feel – surrounded on all sides by tall buildings and with overhead wires up top too, it’s like a canopy in a man made jungle. But yeah, I know I’m one of the few who think that way, I’m mechanical minded, I see way more beauty in infrastructure than the attempts to hide it. I remember driving through the rocky mountains and my absolute favorite part was going through the tunnels, the spectacular natural scenery in between? Meh! lol

GarryM

Posted February 15, 2016 at 2:46 PM

If you’re such a fan of tunnels, I would suggest driving through some in Austria. A few of them were incredibly long. An experience for me that really stood out on that trip.

I remember Aucklands trolley buses from city shopping trips as a child however they were got rid of in the 70s and herds of diesel Mercedes buses took over,
Wellington still has trolleys but they are being phased out in favour of hybrids.

The smaller yellow and orange gas bus and the larger diesel bus in the next frame down were taken in Winnipeg prior to 1976. The building in the background was the Fort Garry Court / Strathcona Block at Broadway and Main. It was destroyed by fire one cold morning in early 1976. The other photo was in close proximity. Consolidated Motors, a Lincoln Mercury dealership was in the background. It was torn down close to four decades ago. Some other frames may be Winnipeg Transit as well. They operated trolley buses and streetcars prior to engine driven units as early as the beginning of the 29th century

I like the fact that Dayton still has the trolley buses, though I haven’t ridden one. San Francisco had them, too, on Market Street. They were equipped with large water filled bumpers in the event of a collision.

Cincinnati is about to get a streetcar system and Northern Kentucky is studying how to tie into it to make local transit much more interesting.

As far as the old-look buses, St. Louis had many of them in the 1970s when I got my first real job in 1975. I did ride them, and not all had air conditioning, either. They got quite hot.

Good grief, Cincinnati’s money-pit streetcar to nowhere. I just read a book about Cincinnati’s abortive subway system from the early 20th century…the tunnels are still viaible between I-75 and Central Parkway, north of the Western Hills Viaduct.

If Cincy is going to do anything on rails, they need to do a light rail system like St. Louis has done…although St Charles County may regret not tying into the light rail lines.

I agree that a light rail system should have been done, but if NKY gets into the streetcar act and ties in with Cincinnati, AND if the streetcar builds up the hill to the UC/”pill hill” area as originally planned, at least that’s something. Hey! at least they’re pretty!

Now if this place can ever get its act together about I-75 and a new bridge…

Thankfully my wife’s commute, and my commute, only involve surface streets. We had to go up I-75 Saturday evening, to a charity banquet in West Chester, and it was a stopped-up mess, from Mitchell Ave to Glendale-Milford…I avoid 75 like the plague.

When North Bend Rd was re-done several years ago, they finally tore out the old rails from the streetcars…it was amazing how many layers of asphalt had been piled on top of the old railbeds. I was also astounded that the rails were still in place.

Zackman

Posted February 15, 2016 at 6:05 PM

Now that’s funny – I live in West Chester!

Fortunately, I don’t do I-75, either – I work in Hebron behind the airport, so I take I-275 all the way. Long, but a sane ride.

I still remember the tangled “forest” of electrical lines that over ran the streets of downtown Atlanta, and how the sparks would fly whenever a junction was crossed! The look really changed once the transition to diesel/gasoline/etc. buses occurred! 🙂

Great article, good to recognize trolley buses for their contribution to public transportation.

The video showing the two Edmonton Transit System buses following old route 7 brought back memories of riding the trolley as a little boy before my father bought his first car. As a kid I always enjoyed riding the bus whether on a GM old-look or the Brill and Canadian Car trolleys. The first trolley buses in Edmonton were AEC models followed by Leylands imported from England. In the latter part of WW II the city of Edmonton bought Pullman-Standard trolleys.

I remember riding GM “Old Look” buses in Washington DC in the early seventies on occasion. This must have been the end for them. I rode mostly GMC “fishbowls” after that. This was during my high schools years. Also used to love the Cadillac bodied ambulances going by on Connecticut Avenue, too!

For a long time, I had assumed that the electric trolley buses were used due to environmental consideration and noise abatement. Living in San Francisco proved me there’s more than that aforementioned reasons.

A several years ago, San Francisco MUNI was evaluating modern buses as a potential replacement of its ancient trolley buses. One manufacturer whose name MUNI would not reveal offered a diesel bus instead of trolley bus. Off it went on the Routes 33 and 37 with full passenger load.

For CC readers unfamiliar with San Francisco, Routes 33 and 37 are notorious for a series of very steep climbing (25-40% gradient) and sharp turns, especially in Noe Valley, Cole Valley, and Twin Peaks neighbourhood areas.

Electric buses both Chinese and Canadian built have been tested during the past several months in Edmonton and the nearby city of St. Albert. Results have been very encouraging but I have not heard yet how these buses do in winter. These types of buses would be the way of the future if batteries can keep a strong charge over many kms.

If all coal generated power plants convert to natural gas generated, then that issue will be removed making electric buses truly Eco friendly transportation.

I love Mr. Peanut standing guard over the peanut store Glad he is still on duty!
I rode the metrolink bus in St Louis for two years did they ride rough
I thought new busses had some high tech smooth ride something
They must have forgotten to put the air in the air suspension system!